The added bonus of a model M is that it will drive your co-workers nuts with the clickyclicky!

]]>By: DoorFramehttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152836
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152836I long ago wore off the lettering on those two keys, and only those two keys. It seems odd as they’re not the most used. What makes N and M so special? All the keys on the home row, for example, look fine.
]]>By: Halloween Jackhttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152848
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152848Maybe there’s some sort of horizontal component of the keystroke, distributed evenly across the keys in the case of people like Stross, and limited to certain keys in the other cases?
]]>By: technogeekhttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152849
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152849In addition to the personal pH issue — It’s interesting that the folks reporting this problem are mostly women despite the fact that keyboard use has become nearly gender-equalized. I find myself wondering whether the real problem is acetone from fingernail polish.
]]>By: kmoserhttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152853
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152853I type quickly, with what I would consider medium pressure, and I have experienced something similar on my Micron keyboard that is about 7 years old. The down-arrow key looks somewhat melted, and the left-shift key has a hole worn right through it.

I’m positive this has less to do with frequency of use or finger pressure than with some chemical reaction, since the plastic on the left-shift key (the one with the hole) is fairly thick. Also, keys that get just as much (if not more) use, such as the spacebar and letters, show virtually no sign of wear.

However, the labels on some of the keys have worn off, making it hard for a non-touch-typist to find which keys are which. Keys hit hardest by this syndrome are A, S, D, F, L, C, V, N, M, comma, period, slash, and Ctrl.

I might take you up on that, actually, depending on the shipping cost. Get in touch with me…logomancer@gBISHOPmail.com (remove clergyman from address).

]]>By: Andrew M.http://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152862
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152862Given the crap materials they make keyboards out of these days, I am hardly surprised by this. This is as good an argument for heavy typers to use a Model M Keyboard as I’ve ever heard. If someone manages to wear one of those out, I will be truly impressed.
]]>By: mercermachinehttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152864
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152864pH definitely plays a part. My laptop, below the keyboard and a portion of the (plastic) steering wheel in my car have lost their coloring where I rest my right palm the most. And don’t even get me started about what happens to the backs of cheap watches I buy…
]]>By: rorschahhttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-153120
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-153120There’s actually a word, in Japanese, that I can’t remember, but it means something like: “the beauty of an object well-worn with use”. I’ve seen it used specifically to refer to why soft woods are prized for go-boards – because over long usage, the board develops divots where the stones go down.

Also seen it used in reference to stuff like wood-handled gardening tools.

In my case, the wear is that the textured plastic becomes polished shony smooth, then the crappy lettering wears through.

All of my keyboards have the same wear pattern; heavy wear on the space bar, right (thumb) end, then R T I O P (top row) A S D F H L, then B N M, and ENTER, and left shift key, track pad somewhat left of center.

I type very hard and fast. I work with my hands and they are very rough with callous, like deep filligreed fine black lines. On two laptop track pads I wore through the top layer enough that I started getting crazy erratic pointer behavior.

Sometimes the “palm rest” area abrades as well.

]]>By: FredicvsMaximvshttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152884
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152884Do you suppose there’s any correlation to people who learned to type on manual typewriters? I’d imagine those folks would be pretty hard on keyboards…
]]>By: asuffieldhttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152891
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152891I must echo the sentiment about the classic model M – it’s damn near indestructible, you can pound on it with a hammer and cause no damage. Heck, you can use it as a hammer in a pinch, or bludgeon intruders with it.

Every time I find somebody who says they keep wearing out their keyboards, it turns out that they’re paying less than Â£20 for them. You simply cannot expect quality at that price. You don’t expect it from your desk or chair or carpet – why would cheap keyboards be any different?

My sweat destroys the labelling on pointing devices in a matter of months, but I’ve been heavily using this model M for almost ten years, and the lettering is still as sharp as the day it was made (according to the label, in 1985). It needs scrubbing with a stiff brush and abrasive cleaner every few years to remove the build-up of grime on the frame, but aside from that you couldn’t tell that it wasn’t brand new.

]]>By: ridestowehttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-153408
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-153408anyone else find it sort of eerie that the letters J K are not worn at all? maybe she was was just kidding(jk)!
]]>By: Anonymoushttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-790345
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-790345I was a flute player before becoming a transcriptionist – the keys on my “plated” flute wore off – I was told due to the acidity of my fingers.

Once I became a transcriptionist, the same thing happened to my keyboards – holes worn through on my first keyboard. As I look at my current keyboard, e, r, t, i, o, a ,s d, f, c, v, b, n,

I do believe it has something to do with acidity levels as my rings do the same thing – wear through to the point they are so thin, they then break!

]]>By: Lizzlehttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-153420
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-153420Another heavy typist with fingernails, and I love my Model M. Given the abuse this thing has had, it might as well be made out of gorgeously clickety granite.

I believe the keys on the Model M have lettering which is actually embedded into the plastic so it’s part of the key itself. Other keyboards seem to use some sort of transfer thing that wears or peels eventually.

]]>By: Chris Tuckerhttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152918
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152918“This is as good an argument for heavy typers to use a Model M Keyboard as I’ve ever heard.”

Or, for the Macintosh user, the original Apple Extended Keyboard.

Mine is over 20 years old, and looks and works as if it just came off the assembly line.

When I got my dual processor G4 Mirror Door Drive Mac, I upgraded to OS X 10.4 and a Griffin iMate ADB to USB adaptor, so that I could continue to use my Extended.

The Extended Keyboard worked just fine. As it does under OS X 10.5.

Real mechanical keyswitches, excellent tactile and audible feedback, superb “feel”. It’s a pleasure to use for hours on end.

Every modern keyboard I’ve used feels like I’m poking at a slab of silly putty.

]]>By: Anonymoushttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-419930
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-419930I’m not sure I agree that it’s really chemical as my keyboard has wear on just about all keys, nice find and shiny. My nails are not long though a little longer than most males (I can’t cut them as short as most, genetics, they will bleed like crazy), I honestly think it might have more to do with *how* you type.

My keyboard is only worn in one spot, where my thumb hits, I’ve found that I tend to “slide” my thumb along the spacebar whenever I am typing, and I have a tendency to hover my fingers very close to all keys when I’m typing, so it’s likely that I like to slide key to key, in doing so, it’s likely causing a lot of that wear.

The main reason I think this couldn’t strictly be pH or chemical, is that my mouse has a “dell” logo right where my palm rests, and my mouse has basically no wear at all, wehreas my keyboard’s alphabet has wear on every single letter, (m, n, c, l are completely gone).

Also the controls on my car’s steering wheel, I regularly will trace patterns on things with my hands when I don’t even realize I’m doing it, I find that ever car I drive I end up wearing the control buttons down normally around the edges and middle of indentions.

I really think it all plays a small part, but I have to say that I really think that how you “grip” the keys with your fingers has a lot to do with it, even know I feel myself gripping/rubbing/pushing on my key surfaces when I type.

(1) In library school, I was told that George Eastman (Mr. Kodak) tested the pH of all potential employees’ hands by having them leave a handprint on a sheet of metal and waiting to see what happenend. He would only hire people whose hands did not react strongly to the metal.

(2) A presenter at an archives conference once confessed to having hands so “toxic” that he had to wear *two* sets of gloves when handling photographs. He also said he stopped wearing a watch because they were literally destroyed by his skin.

]]>By: Paul Maurice Martinhttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152936
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152936“E” is the most commonly used letter in the English language but I guess the fact that you have to reach up for it must diminish the pressure on it and account for why it doesn’t appear to be one of the worn through keys.
]]>By: sluggohttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152941
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152941HA! She never would have been able to destroy the Northgate Omnikey. In fact, it would have happily *insisted* that she type with a blowtorch, and use a hammer for emphasis.

I was lucky enough to find an entire box of 40-some Omnikeys back in the 90’s – 101s, 102s, Ultras.

When I was certain I was going to make a living as a Quake marine, my Omni Ultra came along for the ride.

10+ years later, the first one I picked out of the box is still with me, and looks like it did back then – withstanding day-long FPS sessions and the furious frustrated pounding after my virtual death, coffee spills, a monitor being dropped on it, and angry missives to ex-girlfriends.

It now sits quietly, as my audio workstation keyboard, waiting for me to hit the spacebar again and again.

I still have the box of Omnikeys, so if you want a keyboard you’ll have for the rest of your life, let me know – I’m sure they’d like to be adopted, and be happy with whatever punishment you visit upon them until you’re old and grey.

]]>By: soupisfoodhttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152947
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152947This melted keyboard looks cool, and as long as it looks cool, there must be a marked for it. I imagine companies pushing pre-worn keyboards on customers in a few years time, like with jeans and Fender Stratocasters.
]]>By: andrewmhttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-153206
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-153206ModelM++

The best keyboard money can buy. Holds up to all kinds of abuse, and replaceable keycaps if somehow you manage to damage those.

]]>By: medicalhttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-414074
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-414074It would have been better if the keyboard got worn after one 8 hour session of typing 300 words per minute. Than we know it would be from the speed of the typist’s fingers.
]]>By: Belachttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152967
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152967Does anyone have theories as to why “m” and “n” are the most worn? Is there something about medicine that makes them more common than in ordinary English?
]]>By: trrhttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-153231
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-153231They really don’t look like they were *worn*, especially the ‘n’ key. It looks more like an acute trauma, to use a medical analogy (how appropriate!) like heat or solvent damage. pH doesn’t really explain it either. To damage plastic typically you need a very high pH. Not something found on human skin. Metal corrosion, OK, polymer degradation, not so much. As for acetone in fingernail polish – yeah, but only if she used the keyboard before the stuff dried.
Finally, if the ‘n’ and ‘m’ keys look like that, then what do the ‘e’, ‘t’, ‘a’, (all more frequently used than ‘n’ and ‘m’) and space bar look like??
]]>By: areahttp://boingboing.net/2008/03/28/medical-transcriptio.html#comment-152979
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-152979“… something about medicine that …”

On a more serious note, it might just be that those buttons are pushed the hardest – I’d have thought the index finger on the right hand is likely to be the strongest finger, but I don’t know if it’d be that much stronger.